My apologies for what is pretty much an off-topic post, but since the people who frequent the Trek lit forum were my closest contacts here, they should be the ones to see this. They're the ones who are most owed an explanation, after all. After a few months, I've come back briefly to offer an explanation and a farewell, which I hope will allow an amiable parting. This place is still, in a sense, an unclosed wound, for myself and - I suspect - for at least some of the rest of you who were upset or confused by my behaviour and my worldview (which many of you seem to have misunderstood, by the way).
Have you heard of a woman named Erin Pizzey? She's quite important, in that she was the galvanizing force behind the establishment of what is widely considered the world's first Battered Woman's shelter. She was a tireless pioneer in combating domestic violence, author of the book "Scream Quietly Or The Neighbours Will Hear", which pulled no punches in making people aware of the plight of battered wives. She wrote other books on the subject too.
Erin Pizzey is a bit of a hero of mine. The reason being, she worked with compassion and with an eye to resolving the cycles of violence and abuse that so many families and communities suffer through. Over the course of her involvement in combating domestic violence, she was always stressing the destructive cycles, the tendency for children in abusive environments to be warped by the experience. She knew too that violence wasn't gendered, and that women were often as violent as men were (she also tried to establish a battered men's shelter - funnily enough the same rich businessmen who agreed to fund her battered woman's shelters refused that request). She was the sort of person who Star Trek fans should love - someone who with compassion and unwavering commitment tried to make a better world - at the expense of no-one.
Unfortunately, the Refuge movement she began was hijacked by a certain reactionary ideology. This ideology was called feminism. As the name demonstrates, this ideology was based in a divisive model of gender which insisted that women as a class were disadvantaged compared to men as a class, as a matter of oppressive behaviours on the part of the latter. They claimed to represent "sexual and gender equality", which in their worldview was the case, given that if you're starting with the assumption that females have oppression and males privilige, obviously a concerted effort to promote womens' interests is furthering that goal.
Erin Pizzey's books were essentially blacklisted by the feminists, and she was hounded out of the country (she returned in the end, not a little bitter but still committed to her original vision).
Star Trek fans claim that they promote the vision of a better world, a world of compassion, of perseverence towards a realization of universal dignity. Truth is the first virtue, as the TNG episode goes. But when it comes to the history of violence, abuse and efforts to combat it, the benevolent, truthful voices are suppressed, and the industries generated by divisive and hateful ideologies are embraced. Star Trek fandom proves itself hypocritical.
Speaking personally, as a childhood victim of various forms of abuse, it angers me that the people who tried to help those like me, who sought to understand the problems and resolve them through compassion, had their noble work hijacked by ideologies that still enjoy support among many of you, despite their continued ongoing assaults on due process laws, on rights and freedoms, on historical truths and on family stability.
Rather than receiving the help I needed, I was forced not only to go it alone but to fight against an educational system that tried to shove the feminist lies down my throat, which spread the nonsense of Duluth and The Patriarchy, etc, etc. And then the ignorance of others who insisted that these were fringe movements rather than at the very core of, representaive of, the ideology.
I greatly enjoyed my four years here. I know many of you appreciated me and my posts, particularly in this forum. I considered a great many of you friends. However, if Star Trek fandom is going to continue to embrace hypocrisy, then I feel I must move on. The first virtue is to the truth - which means dismantling the lies and distortions and rededicating yourselves to the visionaries who were in keeping with the spirit of the franchise.
I wish you all well; I myself will find a community where the works of people like Erin Pizzey are respected, and the lies and the betrayals are denounced rather than supported.
Have you heard of a woman named Erin Pizzey? She's quite important, in that she was the galvanizing force behind the establishment of what is widely considered the world's first Battered Woman's shelter. She was a tireless pioneer in combating domestic violence, author of the book "Scream Quietly Or The Neighbours Will Hear", which pulled no punches in making people aware of the plight of battered wives. She wrote other books on the subject too.
Erin Pizzey is a bit of a hero of mine. The reason being, she worked with compassion and with an eye to resolving the cycles of violence and abuse that so many families and communities suffer through. Over the course of her involvement in combating domestic violence, she was always stressing the destructive cycles, the tendency for children in abusive environments to be warped by the experience. She knew too that violence wasn't gendered, and that women were often as violent as men were (she also tried to establish a battered men's shelter - funnily enough the same rich businessmen who agreed to fund her battered woman's shelters refused that request). She was the sort of person who Star Trek fans should love - someone who with compassion and unwavering commitment tried to make a better world - at the expense of no-one.
Unfortunately, the Refuge movement she began was hijacked by a certain reactionary ideology. This ideology was called feminism. As the name demonstrates, this ideology was based in a divisive model of gender which insisted that women as a class were disadvantaged compared to men as a class, as a matter of oppressive behaviours on the part of the latter. They claimed to represent "sexual and gender equality", which in their worldview was the case, given that if you're starting with the assumption that females have oppression and males privilige, obviously a concerted effort to promote womens' interests is furthering that goal.
Erin Pizzey's books were essentially blacklisted by the feminists, and she was hounded out of the country (she returned in the end, not a little bitter but still committed to her original vision).
Star Trek fans claim that they promote the vision of a better world, a world of compassion, of perseverence towards a realization of universal dignity. Truth is the first virtue, as the TNG episode goes. But when it comes to the history of violence, abuse and efforts to combat it, the benevolent, truthful voices are suppressed, and the industries generated by divisive and hateful ideologies are embraced. Star Trek fandom proves itself hypocritical.
Speaking personally, as a childhood victim of various forms of abuse, it angers me that the people who tried to help those like me, who sought to understand the problems and resolve them through compassion, had their noble work hijacked by ideologies that still enjoy support among many of you, despite their continued ongoing assaults on due process laws, on rights and freedoms, on historical truths and on family stability.
Rather than receiving the help I needed, I was forced not only to go it alone but to fight against an educational system that tried to shove the feminist lies down my throat, which spread the nonsense of Duluth and The Patriarchy, etc, etc. And then the ignorance of others who insisted that these were fringe movements rather than at the very core of, representaive of, the ideology.
I greatly enjoyed my four years here. I know many of you appreciated me and my posts, particularly in this forum. I considered a great many of you friends. However, if Star Trek fandom is going to continue to embrace hypocrisy, then I feel I must move on. The first virtue is to the truth - which means dismantling the lies and distortions and rededicating yourselves to the visionaries who were in keeping with the spirit of the franchise.
I wish you all well; I myself will find a community where the works of people like Erin Pizzey are respected, and the lies and the betrayals are denounced rather than supported.
) 
I don't even go into any of the other boards anymore, the Trek Lit board is my favorite. It just seems like the people here are more respectful of other posters, and the level of discussion is higher than the rest of the boards or internet as a whole. 
